The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.

You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.

What experience and history teach is this—that nations and governments have never learned anything from history or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.

An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.

The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss.

Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.